Chapter 2146 Listen
Yin Huo had more than just one cloak; he had several. He wore it when it was coldest, when it was cold, when it was just getting cold, when it was neither too cold nor too hot, and even when it was hot, and when it rained...
The cloak alone took up an entire box, so he had the most luggage.
Manbao yawned and went to find General Nie before going to sleep. Coincidentally, Bai Shan also came over.
"Is he a real merchant?"
Nie Canjun said: "I didn't see anything wrong."
That was probably the case. Manbao and Baishan went to sleep peacefully. When they got up early the next morning, the guards had already started boiling water and making porridge.
Manbao stretched his arms and legs, turned around and went to wash up. As usual, they read books on the vast grassland for about three quarters of an hour. After breakfast was ready, they put away the books and went to eat.
Mr. You was stunned. He stuffed a pancake into his mouth mechanically and said to himself: I now completely believe that their trip is not mainly for business.
Although Mr. You wanted to make friends with them, for businessmen, time is money, and they would not wait for Zhou Man and the others to go together.
So after eating the dry food, Mr. You came over to say goodbye to Mr. Zhuang and planned to leave first.
Mr. Zhuang smiled and saw them off. After they were far away, he turned around and said to his disciples and students who were busy eating porridge, "Do you know what it means to hurry? This is it."
Manbao didn't care. "We are not in a hurry, sir. We have been in a hurry before and even marched quickly."
Bai Shan said, "When we hurried to Xiazhou before the New Year, our thighs were worn out. We were much faster than Master You."
What this means is that they don’t lack this experience and there is no need to accumulate it.
Mr. Zhuang shook his head and asked them, "How long do you plan to take to get to Liangzhou?"
Manbao said, "Almost there, almost there, sir. I heard there's another section of the Great Wall further ahead. Should we go climb it?"
In fact, there is a section of the Great Wall before Xiazhou, but they did not pass by the Great Wall during their three in and out trips, so they have never been there. They had all left the protection range of that section of the Great Wall two days ago. However, there is another section further ahead, and I heard that the scenery is pretty good.
Mr. Zhuang thought for a moment and said, "Forget it. Let's go back and see. Let's go to Yumen Pass first."
He looked at Liu Huan and said, "We'll pass through Suzhou on the way. Do you want to go through Suzhou City to see your parents?"
Liu Huan refused without a second thought, "It's more important to find the prescription. We can just go straight ahead. There's no need to go all the way to Suzhou City."
Liu Huan was not very familiar with his parents, and he ran away secretly this time. Although he had the support of his grandparents, he still felt guilty.
Feeling guilty, I didn't want to go to Suzhou to see my parents.
So the group sped up, and Master You witnessed the speed of their carriages and horses. Although they would set out earlier every day, they would always catch up with them after noon and always camp somewhere at night.
Bai Shan and the others especially like to talk to Mr. You. Basically, they invite him to dinner and chat every night.
Mr. You couldn't eat for free, but he didn't have much food with him, so he could only give them some tea from his own goods.
Bai Shan accepted it happily. Although the tea was not better than what they brought themselves, it was still a thoughtful gesture, wasn't it?
Mr. You breathed a sigh of relief. He had said everything he could say for two consecutive days and felt like he was running out of words to say to them.
At this time, they found a place to camp for the night, and the carriage stopped. Mr. Zhuang took a stool and sat on the ground, breathing a sigh of relief.
Mr. You, who came over, couldn't help laughing, "Are you tired, sir?"
Mr. Zhuang smiled and said, "It's okay. I'm just a little stiff from sitting in this car for so long. But the most important thing is that I can't meet anyone. I feel a little depressed."
Master You said, "That's how it is on the grasslands. Herders are always moving, so the markets move with them. This time, because of the smallpox epidemic, I left home a month later than usual, so I couldn't find the markets and tribes I remember visiting."
That’s right, for five consecutive days Manbao and his companions didn’t meet any local herdsmen, let alone the market. Even the post station was dilapidated and there was no one there.
General Nie took a look and guessed that no one had been here since the smallpox epidemic, so they did not stay in the post station, but still found a place to camp outside.
Although the smallpox epidemic has passed, no one knows whether any smallpox patients have died in the post station, or whether the staff at the post station cleaned up the place before leaving.
So they didn't live there.
However, Lieutenant Nie wrote down the location of the post station and planned to report it to the garrison when he arrived at the next town. How come the post station on the official road was unattended and unmanaged?
What if a military emergency occurs and no one provides vehicles and horses?
Not only General Nie, but also Man Bao, Bai Shan and others took note of it. Bai Shan even took out a roll of drawing paper, slowly spread it out, calculated the approximate proportions, and wrote down the location of the post station on it. After marking it, he took out a booklet and recorded the matter.
Manbao stared at the map, turned his head and saw it, and said, "It seems that the smallpox on the grassland is more serious than Brother Yang knows."
Bai Shan nodded, tilted his head and thought for a moment before saying, "Food on the grasslands will probably be in short supply this year. Didn't Mingxue negotiate a shipment of food with someone in Fengzhou?"
Xiang Mingxue was about to marry Zhou Lijun, so he started calling him by his name instead of calling him "Brother Xiang" as before.
Manbao touched his chin and said, "This way, the sales of medicinal herbs and other things will actually decrease. I'm afraid that Fourth Brother's business will be difficult this year."
Although he thought so, Manbao didn't worry too much. Even if it was not easy to do, he would just make less money. When autumn and winter came, the first batch of students from the Imperial Medical Bureau would go to the local medical bureaus, and more medicinal materials would be needed. He would not lose money in the medicinal materials business.
This is a grassland. There are quite a lot of medicinal herbs on the grassland, and many of them are species that have never been seen before. Keke quickly scanned and found three plants that it had not included. Manbao then rode on horseback with a medicine basket on his back to dig them.
Bai Erlang and the others didn't want to ride horses anymore, so only Bai Erlang went with them, and Daji ran behind the two of them as usual.
In order to make the disappeared plants less conspicuous, Manbao would not only dig up more plants to be included, but also dig up any medicinal herbs she knew on the grass, and throw them into the medicine basket. Not to mention Daji who was following her, even Baishan was not sure whether she had given them to her father-in-law.
While digging happily, Daji suddenly lay down on the grass and listened.
Bai Shan and Man Bao immediately lay down and put their ears to the grass to listen with great interest. After a while, Man Bao asked Bai Shan, who was lying opposite him, "Did you hear anything?"
Bai Shan: "No, does the sound of insects count?"
So the two of them sat up and looked at Daji together.
Daji: "...Master, Miss Man, I heard some noises. There were horse hooves, but more of them seemed to be the sounds of cattle and horses moving around. We might have encountered a herd of cattle."
Manbao and Baishan looked at each other, then lay on the grass and listened carefully, but they still couldn't hear anything after a long time.
Daji took a look and said, "Master, don't mind the dirtiness of the grass. Listen closely."
Bai Shan raised his head, looked down at the grass beneath him, and finally took out a handkerchief and placed it on the grass, then he leaned in to listen.
Seeing this, Manbao followed suit.
See you tomorrow
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
